Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 6th February 2024 |
 |
UK news
DDN February 2024 issue - out now
Whats our problem with tackling smoking? Smoking is the elephant in the room for drug and alcohol services, David MacKintosh tells DDN (p6). Many staff are smokers themselves and ‘if you’re trying to engage with a guy on a cardboard box in a shop doorway then a cigarette isn’t a bad way of doing it.’ When we started DDN 20 years ago you could spot a drugs conference venue from the large group of smokers outside. The difference is that many of us with a choice are vaping these days | DDN, UK
Levy on supermarkets could raise £57 million a year
New research (PDF) from the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde shows that a levy on shops and supermarkets that sell alcohol could raise £57 million a year. Scotland’s national alcohol charity, Alcohol Focus Scotland, who commissioned the research, say this could provide much-needed additional funding for local alcohol treatment, recovery support and prevention | Alcohol Focus Scotland, UK
Scotland expected to raise minimum alcohol price by 30%
Health campaigners will welcome new unit rate of 65p, which will push bottle of whisky to at least £18.20 | Guardian, UK
6 February 2024 - Prevention in health and social care - Oral evidence
Watch Live. This evidence session focuses on ill-health caused by alcohol, hearing from the brewing and drinks industries and organisations working to reduce alcohol harm, and following Monday’s session, from experts on smoking impact and behaviours around it. On the agenda, the risks of harm caused by smoking and drinking in pregnancy, alcohol price and marketing, links between alcohol and drug use and harmful gambling behaviour | UK Parliament, UK
Guidance: Public health ring-fenced grant financial year 2024 to 2025: local authority circular
This circular sets out: allocations of the local government public health grant for the financial year 2024 to 2025 / the conditions that will apply to that grant /guidance intended to assist local authorities. In the financial year 2024 to 2025, the total public health grant to local authorities will be £3.603 billion | DHSC, UK
Public Health Grant: “Nowhere near enough”
Directors of Public Health (DsPH) have described today’s Public Health Grant announcement as “nowhere near enough”. Within the grant, which pays for a wide range of locally delivered services including healthy weight and sexual health services, there is also ring-fenced funding allocated to tobacco, drug and alcohol services, as well as for early years provision. However, although the Grant allocation is being described by the Government as an increase, high inflation and pay increases mean that the grant settlement will be the ninth consecutive year of real-term cuts to local public health funding | ADPH, UK
Top health boss warns smoking is back on the rise
The borough's public health director, Abdul Razaq, has recommended the authority adds a new Community Stop Smoking Service to its existing pharmacy-led model of stop smoking support | BBC, UK
Drug use in supported accommodation settings: new episode of Going Beyond podcast
In Episode 4 of Series 4 of the Going Beyond Podcast, we speak to Ellie McNeil, Chief Executive for YMCA Together and Kevin Flemen, Founder and Manager of the drug awareness service KFx. We speak about drug use in supported accommodation settings and the importance of writing and implementing policies in this area | Homeless Link, UK
Turning the page, WithYou: Steven’s Story
Steven shares the story of his journey to recovery with support from WithYou | WithYou, UK
A path to recovery: Kelly from Darlington shares her drug recovery story (PDF)
“I can't change anything that happened but it's not what defines me - today is what defines me.” From spending £300 a day on crack cocaine to working with a charity that helped save her life | WithYou, UK
The Talk About Trust
The 5th February marked a very important day for the youth charity The Alcohol Education Trust. After 14 years, the charity has changed its name to The TALK ABOUT Trust, to reflect the fact that it supports young people with the knowledge, life skills and resilience to make safer choices around vaping, cannabis, NOS and other substances, drink spiking and county lines as well as alcohol. Our flagship programme is called Talk About Alcohol and so the new name gives us continuity plus the flexibility to talk about other important issues facing young people today | Talk About Trust, UK
#COAWeek2024: 11-17 February 2024
COA Week is the annual campaign to raise awareness of children affected by
a parent’s drinking | NACOA, UK
North Yorkshire unites to reduce alcohol and drug use harm
Partners across North Yorkshire are working together to cut harm caused by drugs and alcohol in their ongoing efforts to ensure many more people live longer and healthier lives | North Yorkshire Police, UK
Man in court after cannabis 'worth £1.1m' seized
A man has appeared in court after drugs said by police to be worth about £1.1m were discovered in Aberdeenshire | BBC, UK
International news
January 2024 Cara Murphy - Let's talk e-cigarettes
Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Assistant Professor Cara Murphy, clinical psychologist at Brown University. Cara Murphy works at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction in the School of Public Health and the Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation | University of Oxford, UK
Zanzibar beer: Alcohol shortage hits Tanzania's spice islands
The spice islands of Zanzibar are facing a shortage of alcohol which threatens the tourism sector of one of Africa's top travel destinations | BBC, UK
Policies on drugs must advance rights, including to health, Türk says
Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem | UNODC, Switzerland
'They consume less here': Inside the Brussels centre supervising drug addiction
Drug consumption rooms provide a safe space for impoverished drug users to consume illegal substances under supervision and with access to healthcare. The centres play an essential role as a drug crisis unfolds in Brussels, but the sector lacks the funds to cope with demand | Brussels Times, Belgium
Germany’s Government Coalition Reaches Final Deal On Cannabis Legalization
After resolving internal disagreements and making adjustments regarding cannabis legalization in Germany, the coalition government seems to have reached a consensus | Forbes, USA
Study says reducing homelessness by 25% could save thousands of lives from dying by overdose
Published by Health Affairs, the study is the first to suggest that increased homelessness likely causes increased overdose deaths from drugs and alcohol | Medical Xpress, USA
Heavy cannabis use linked to increased risk of developing a new anxiety disorder
Twenty-seven percent of individuals who had an emergency department visit for cannabis use developed a new anxiety disorder within three years, according to new research | News Medical, USA
Researchers develop rapid test for detecting fentanyl
University of Texas at Dallas researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind, handheld electrochemical sensor that can accurately detect fentanyl in urine within seconds | Medical Xpress, USA
ASSAD 2022–2023: Australian secondary school students’ use of alcohol and other substances (PDF)
This report presents national secondary student alcohol and other substance use data from the 2022/2023 Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) survey. The ASSAD survey is the largest national survey of adolescent substance use in Australia, and is administered on school premises. The report examines students’ prevalence of drinking and other substance use in 2022/2023 and over time. We further present data on students’ behaviours relating to the use of alcohol, over-the-counter drugs (for non-medical reasons) and cannabis | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Stigma kills people with alcohol addiction
One of my patients, Emma (not her real name), recently told me that she didn’t seek help for her alcohol problem because she was ashamed. She said that she didn’t want to waste anyone’s time on a self-inflicted problem. She lived with it for years, hiding bottles of alcohol so her partner wouldn’t find out. Only when she turned yellow and vomited blood did she call an ambulance | Conversation, UK
Clouded judgments on vaping are harmful
Doctors are partly to blame for the alarming rise in vaping addiction, argues Dr Philip Barber. Plus Chris Rennard on the human cost of diseases caused by smoking | Guardian letters, UK
How Oregon Became a Linchpin for the Country’s Drug Policies
[Free registration may be required] In February 2021, Oregon decriminalized possession of small amounts of all drugs, via a ballot initiative known as Measure 110. The idea was to treat addiction as a public health problem, based on overwhelming evidence that jailing people for having small amounts of drugs for personal use is both ineffective and counterproductive | NYTimes Opinion, USA
Amid growing legalization, cannabis in culture and politics is the focus of this anthropology course
What prompted the idea for the course? "Whenever I taught my medical anthropology course, I noticed that students were most curious about the section of the course that deals with the uses of plants, fungi and other species for a range of medical purposes. Those purposes included healing, psychological well-being, ritual and spiritual awakening, to name a few..." | Conversation, USA